An elite interational dive rescue team begins a complex operation on Wednesday to recover the remains of the last two of four Italian divers from underwater caves more than 200 feet down off the Maldives' Vaavu Atoll. Photo courtesy Maldives President's Media Division/EPA
May 20 (UPI) -- The final two bodies of a group of Italian divers were recovered from undersea caves on Wednesday, almost a week after they were killed during a research expedition to the Maldives.
The remains of the two, identified as Genoa University student Giorgia Sommacal, 22, and Muriel Oddenino, 31, a research fellow at the university, were retrieved from inside a cave at a depth of more than 200 feet by a specialist international dive rescue team.
As in the operation that successfully recovered the bodies of the first two of the four Italians on Tuesday, three Finnish elite divers from the Divers Alert Network brought the bodies up one at a time to around 100 feet before handing them off to divers from the Maldivian coast guard and diving back down to the cave.
A spokesman for DAN's Europe offices said the Finns were equipped with rebreathers, which recycle exhaled air and use a chemical scrubber to remove carbon dioxide, permitting "significantly longer dives."
